Russia has conditions for social business – Muhammad Yunus

The fact that Russian business is only 15 years old is an advantage rather than a drawback

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MOSCOW, October 21 (Itar-Tass) —— Russia has all the needed conditions for the development of social business, Professor Muhammad Yunus, a man of world renown, Nobel Prize winner, a native of Bangladesh, said at a meeting with members of the Public Chamber on Friday. For several decades he has been doing business, which brings neither profits, not losses, but helps resolve social problems of society.

Yunus is sure that “Russia is ready for the creation of new conditions for the development of social business, and it has already all the needed conditions for it.” “The fact that Russian business is only 15 years old is an advantage rather than a drawback. There are many opportunities in Russia for the development of social business,” he said.

Yunus reminded that social business was aimed, in the first place, at resolving such social problems as a gap between the rich and the poor, the increase of the number of the employed and the creation of many new jobs. “The purpose of social business is the distribution of social benefits. It is aimed at resolving complex social problems. This is why many global problems can be resolved in countries with the help of such activities,” he stressed.

Yunus said that there are many companies in Bangladesh, which engage in social business. Many of them help resolve problems of families in a low income bracket and of young people. “Russia could pay more attention to the development of social business for those categories of the population,” he said.

According to his information, a regular annual summit on social business will be held in Vienna on November 10-12. Some 1,000 delegates from all over the world will come to attend it, including representatives of the business community and of various youth organizations, professors and researchers. “The forum is going to discuss some problems facing social business people and ways of resolving them, and to exchange positive experience in doing social business,” Yunus continued.

The problem in Russia is that people understand in various ways the notion of “social business,” said Yelena Nikolayeva, head of the Public Chamber commission for social problems and the demographic policy. “We should improve our legislation in that sphere and should have the notion recorded in the legislation, so that there would be no misunderstanding in the future,” she said.

Special attention has been devoted to social business over the past few years all over the world because of the stratification of the population by the level of incomes, and because of the growing number of the poor and the unemployed. According to the Auditing Chamber of Russia, the gap between the per capita incomes of the rich and the poor in Russia has perceptibly grown of late and amounts today to 17 percent of the gross domestic product.